Page 4 of Chess

Ever tucked the chess piece into her pocket and lifted her backpack. As she pulled open the door, the main glistening, white room sat empty for everyone except for one immortal at the table in the middle of the area.

Ferris.

She blew out a breath, alerting him to her presence. Ferris’s hand stilled on a notebook he was sketching in and he hurried to shut it. His brown gaze peered up at her and an eyebrow arched. Since she’d seen him last as a mortal, he appeared mostly the same. Some vampires inherited different hair colors, eye colors, but he’d gained neither. For her, it was her hair, which had become white as snow instead of the deep murky brown it had once been.

“You’re not sleeping?” Ever asked and stepped toward him.

He ran a hand through his short, dark hair. “Nope, not today.”

Earlier, Ferris had been mostly quiet, but his eyes had drifted to Mouse every so often. Always drifting to Mouse, even back at the club before Ever went into hiding. When he’d been human, after Maddie and Mouse brought her to a run-down club, Ever had drank from him with her friends. He’d had a heavenly taste, but she’d seen the truth in his blood, the pain, something only a few royals could do. After that, she didn’t want to drink from him, didn’t want to see his suffering again.

Ever sank down in a chair beside him and took out a pack of blood and her canteen of water. She figured she better get her strength up before leaving.

“How do you like being a vampire?” Ever asked to break up the silence.

“It’s better than being human.” He paused, and bit his lip, his eyes meeting hers. “You never told them what you saw?”

Ever shook her head, thinking about him at nineteen … the car wreck … his pregnant girlfriend dying. At the club, he’d seen the pity in her eyes when her gaze had unintentionally latched onto the promise ring he’d worn on a chain around his neck, the one he’d given to his dead girlfriend. He’d somehow known what she’d seen and an understanding had passed between them in that moment. “It’s not my place.”

Ferris let out a relieved sigh. “Thank you.”

“No thank you needed.” If he wanted to tell Maddie and Mouse more about his tragic past, then he could. But the past was the past. No, that was a lie. Sometimes the past did require a bit of betraying. Chess… Rav...

A low, groggy moan came from one of the bedrooms where Mouse was sleeping. “How is she?” Ever glanced back at Ferris. He’d been with Mouse at the palace for two years as Imogen’s Knave, while she’d been in a cell. Ever also learned Imogen had taken him to her bed, then fucked him before turning him into her vampire servant. He’d done it all to protect Mouse, to try and help her escape. If anyone was a damn prince, it was Ferris, especially since she’d known through his blood that he’d never wanted to get close to another female again.

“She’s a fighter,” he said softly. “The palace wasn’t good for either of us, but even with some of the shitty things I had to do there, I’m glad I was with her.”

The former White King and Queen had never mistreated Ever or Rav. The twins had been made into a prince and princess after falling into Wonderland, but the royals’ servants had always had a choice before becoming immortal.

“I need you to do something for me,” Ever finally said.

Ferris threw his head back and rolled his eyes at the pearl chandelier hanging above them. “Bloody hell, don’t tell me you’re leaving already.”

“Promise me you’ll watch over them while I’m gone.”

His gaze fell back to hers and understanding was there. “I will.”

Ever finally mixed the blood and water, then drank the thick concoction down. Ferris’s fingers tapped against his closed notebook, and she wondered what was inside. But she didn’t ask, didn’t want to know if his demons were in there like they’d been inside his head.

“Do you miss the drums?” She smiled, remembering the one image he’d held that helped him through his past before Mouse had saved him from his overdose.

Ferris nodded, giving her a curious look at the sudden change in subject. “I do.”

“When I return to the Ivory Palace one day, you will come and bring a new set with you.” She needed new guards anyway.

His lips tilted up at the edges. “They’ll be fucking loud.”

“Good. I’m sick of quiet.” Ever smiled and stood from her seat to bid Mouse and Maddie goodbye before returning to the mortal world.

Ever adjusted her backpack, then left Ferris to himself. Mouse’s door was still wide open and the White Queen walked in, finding her friend lying asleep in bed, her breaths even. Instead of the serene expression her face normally held in the past as she slept, a scowl sat in its place. Ever wondered what she was dreaming, or perhaps, what the nightmare was about. Her stomach tightened at the thought that she was the reason this had happened to Mouse … and to Maddie.

She stepped farther into the room toward the bed—the area was similar to where she’d slept, except the bed and wardrobe were both obsidian, while everything else was a glossy white. Mouse’s pink braid rested over her shoulder, and on the bedside table, her blue and yellow caterpillar, Des, lay atop a bright green leaf, fast asleep too. Maddie had told Ever that her sister acquired the creature while a prisoner inside the Ruby Heart Palace. A caterpillar in Wonderland wasn’t destined to become a butterfly as in the mortal world. They didn’t have those insects here, so instead, it would remain a beautiful wingless creature for all eternity.

“Mouse,” Ever whispered, lightly shaking her friend’s shoulders, and Mouse jerked forward. “I wanted to tell you goodbye, but I’ll only be gone temporarily.”

Mouse blinked, her violet eyes glazed, and let out a small yawn. “I can come.”

“No, you will not. You still need time to heal.” She didn’t mean the physical wounds. In the past, Ever wouldn’t have minded her coming, but not this time, not after the suffering Mouse had endured at the hands of Rav and the Queen of Hearts. She bent forward and kissed the forehead of her friend, who still smelled of gardenias like she always had.

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